2. CONVENTIONS
• When attracting my audience, I had to bare in mind that I must include the conventions of
a thriller that make what it what it is.
• Protagonist faces death
• Antagonism exceeding the protagonists mental and physical attributes
• the storyline is a quest for the protagonist building them up into someone who is far
stronger physically and mentally.
• Storyline follows a mystery.
3. AUDIENCE
• Audience’s opinions have been taken in giving me a better creative influence. Giving the
audience what they want will result in a better coverage for the final outcome.
• In my research I found that the most popular age that watch thrillers are those in their late
teens and young adult years.
• With this in mind I could set an age appeal on my film helping me sculpt in more to them
as it is the most popular age to watch these films.
• The next thing I also found out was that the most common gender to watch modern day
thrillers was males with a result of 62%.
4. • Several other questions where asked to determine what differs the male and female
interests of thrillers and what age groups prefer. This helps me create a final outcome that
can appeal to larger audience, ensuring a better positive reaction.
• From my research I found that the most popular conventions in a thriller are suspense
and twists.
• With this in mind I was able to find popular thriller titles with these conventions and see
what they have done to emulate these chosen attributes.
• From what I found the common setting in these films have an eerie and suspenseful
tension flowing through the full film, keeping audience members hooked to the plotline.
• The antagonist was also a main contribution, as without a unique character of the
antagonist, the films wouldn’t be as strong as they are.
5. SETTING THE SCENE
• For the opening sequence I wanted this ill and dark looking area, closed off from the real
world.
• This is quite a common setting for most modern day thrillers as it represents the
antagonist that tends to form a lair in this sort of enclosed atmosphere.
• Films such as ‘silence of the lambs’ with the character buffalo bill and Hannibal Lecter
have this look down well as it represents the character whole, showing the audience what
the character is really like.
6. PRODUCTION
• During the production process, I had to maintain an eerie suspense through the use of
camera angles and point of view shots, as the wrong angle can ruin the emotive effect
given.
• The camera angles I found most popular in the modern day thriller where; handheld,
canted and extreme close ups, where all used especially when it came to highlighting key
points.
• Examples of this can be found in the opening sequence of seven, which I analyzed for my
nine frame.
7. • In my opening sequence I followed similar guidelines of ‘seven’ using MCU and ‘ECU’
angles only revealing a small amount as to what’s going on, building this mystery for the
audience.
• Canted angles where also used as this represents a sign that something in the shot is not
right which helped me portray the character.
8. • With the right portrayal the character was able to appeal to the audience, as this is one of
the most popular things in modern day thrillers.
• Characters such as ‘Hannibal’ and ‘the joker’ have this unique depth to them that attracts
the audience and contributing massively to what the audience see of the film.
• If the antagonist is remembered well the overall film has a better chance of being
remembered in a good light.
9. FEEDBACK
• When I released the opening sequence, I asked for audience feedback to see if I have
achieved a successful piece that has maintained what makes a thriller so successful.
• ‘My favorite part was when the protagonist flipped the table, due to the excessive
amounts of negative effects used, because it shows me that the character has some sort
of psychotic condition. I find it amazing that this was only a 2-minute clip created by an AS
student. Good work milo’
• This is a couple of the feedback that was given in return. From the feedback I believe I
made quite a successful result as people enjoyed it. I do however reckon I could do better
if given more time but from what I’ve been told, the outcome is a success.
